


The Song Remains The Same

by ArcanumArcanorum



Series: Dean's Top 13 Zepp Traxx [4]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Bunker, Canon-Typical Violence, Channeling, Established Relationship, F/M, Family Fluff, Fix-It, Flying, Heaven, Humor, Led Zeppelin References, M/M, Major Character Injury, Monster of the Week, Multi, Roadhouse, TheirLoveWasReal, alternate universe -- post canon, canon-divergent, early ensemble, finale denialism, heavy sam/eileen, letting go, post spn 15x20, sudden disability
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-17 06:14:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29712864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArcanumArcanorum/pseuds/ArcanumArcanorum
Summary: While we may see some of Dean and Castiel, it's time to see how those still on earth are moving on.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester, Dean Winchester & Sam Winchester, Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester
Series: Dean's Top 13 Zepp Traxx [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2182767
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14
Collections: Their Love Was Real: a Destiel & Saileen Fanworks Challenge





	1. The Clown Car

A rodeo of dueling guitars swerved the Impala with its strings over the open road; the endless bridge across the abyss that came whenever Castiel was in heavy tow between thus far undiscovered lands and heavens offshore as islands, leading one destination to the next across the axis mundi over the cosmic seas.

But the usual pilot was not behind the wheel.

_I had a dream_

_Oh, yeah_

_Crazy dream, uh-huh_

_Anything I wanted to know_

_Any place I needed to go_

Castiel was hands on the steering wheel; not that he truly had to be here. He could be the car itself if needed, but he was more interested in leaning out the open window to call up to the roof in raised brusque more than shout as the music dimmed for him to be heard, “Even for us this is a bad idea.”

_Hear my song_

_Yeah, people don't you listen now?_

_Sing along,_ _Oh_

Blazing along at the speed of light across the stars and waves in the neverending sun, Dean Winchester let off his best baying _woop-woop-WOOO!_ of confirmation from the Impala’s roof while turned into the wind as if riding a surfboard.

“...Alright,” Castiel said tiredly, tucking back into the car with raised brows.

Noticing the angel disappearing, Dean yelled out to little avail from above, barely heard within. “Oh come on, what’s it going to do, kill me?”

_You don't know what you're missing, now_

_Any little song that you know_

Castiel rolled his eyes and let the Impala gun onward as Dean tested an _idea_. In Heaven, it was all ideas. And since the Impala seemed to serve as his roving claim to the Mundi, much less whatever cosmic mess he married into with the ‘Queen of Heaven’, he saw nothing preventing from addressing one of his old fears in life.

_Everything that's small has to grow_

_And it's gonna grow, push push, yeah_

Dean spread his freshly formed wings--the simple faded greys of a mourning dove-- and was left parachuting off behind the car as the Zeppelin track regained its full burst of chaos.

The angel boggled into the rear view mirror, watching the hunter spin out and disappear over the bridge in his tumult. A master driver rather than a granny parker only when Dean was in distress, the impossible U-turn swerved back towards the quickly abandoned space where Castiel skidded into sideways park across the lane with screeching tires, throwing open the door to look over the side before the vehicle even stopped.

He nearly had his tie ripped off over his head with a whooping cry of victory emerging with a snap of the hunter’s wings surging him overhead.

_Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh, California sunlight_

_Sweet Calcutta rain_

There were no shadows to be cast here even as Castiel watched the man pass immediately overhead, calling down at him. 

“Oh come on, you can’t tell me you don’t have wings here anymore!” Dean taunted as he disappeared under the other side of the bridge in another dive, this one more by choice.

_Honolulu starbright_

_The song remains the same_

_Ooh, ooh, oh, oh_

Castiel sighed, feigning exasperation for no one’s sake but his own as he climbed over the edge and let himself fall. It wouldn’t be the first time. Somehow, it was never the last.

_Here we go, here we go_

_All you gotta do, now_

_All you gotta do, now_

_Ooh-ee_

Castiel tucked in ebony-banded, slate shaded falcon wings open on his near miss with Dean, leaving the hunter the one to spiral out again from the peregrine strike he was far less trained to avoid than that of the billion year winged warrior. As they flared open to rip Castiel back skyward, Dean was still recovering in his own flapping spiral. 

It would have been hard to tell who’s laugh was which.

_Sing out Hare-Hare_

_Ooh, dance the Hoochie-Koo_

“You may want to calm down a bit as a fresh flyer.” 

Castiel closed more distance than Dean managed, gliding beneath him as if to apply a pressure lift to stabilize while turning in aerial match to steal the hunter’s arm It forced the hunter into a whirl, pressed against the angel’s back with wings collapsed and folded beneath the arms that wrapped his upper torso, hand matching a shoulder mark from days of perdition. 

“I hear eagles have snapped their mates’ neck during overactive mating rituals.”

“Oh that’s… that’s sexy pillow talk, Cas.” 

Dean tried to sound more judging than thrilled at the simple surrender of his own paralyzed wings in position.

_City lights are oh so bright, as we go sliding, sliding_

_Sliding, sliding, sliding, sliding, sliding, sliding_

_Oh~_

The notes intended to play out cut short as the two were coming back to bridge level.

“Can either of you clowns hear me?” Bobby’s voice crackled through the transmission. 

Still balancing on the rail, Castiel released Dean down to answer the demand of urgency in Dean’s voice, sticking his head in the Impala. 

“Yo, Bobby, what’s up?”

“You’ve got a call.”

“I’ve got a what now?” Dean squinted in disbelief at the radio. “Not just a rowdy soul that needs bouncing?”

“You heard me. You got a call. So either stop fuckin’ upstairs or get your other asses over here.”

* * *

* * *

“Do you really think this can work?” Claire sounded less than impressed as they gathered around the Bunker library table.

It had been a while since Sam set foot in the place. Eileen had let the few temporary hunter guests know the place would be needed for the night, so it somehow felt ambiently homey like old days. Sam could see not much had changed as he looked around-- though he found his fingers idling on the carved marks on the table. 

“Uh, yeah. I mean-- it worked before.”

Jack idled in the archway. “And it’s not going to cause trouble, is it? Because Dean made me promise not to use magic to cause trouble.”

“It’s--it’s not magic, Jack. Or grace. It’s-- Patience is a psychic. It’s a gift some humans have. We’ve known a few. Unfortunately the others are--”

“-Dead,” Patience’s voice punctuated abruptly from the access door to the hallway on the far side of the war room, leaving Jack to turn to face her. 

The glibness wasn’t even skin deep. 

“Yeah, my grandma was one. Runs in the family I guess.”

As Patience stepped up next to Jack and into the room, Claire popped up. “Is Kaia okay?”

“Yeah she’s just settling in the last of her things, I didn’t want to bother her,” her cheeks puffed with a gust of air. “Okay, I admit I haven’t done this kind of thing.”

“You sure you’re okay with it?” Eileen double-checked from the other end of the table near the telescope, arms folded.  
“Yeah,” Patience nodded. “It’s new, and weird, and maybe a little scary to take on, but if Sam says it’ll be safe I believe him. And besides… I never really got to say goodbye to him.”

“None of us really did,” Claire added, arms folded in far more self-security than Eileen’s casual posture down the way.

Sam lowered his head. “Yeah. ...Yeah.”

Jack piped up. “They went on happy. So that’s a good thing.” 

In theory; but he was yet to understand how that didn’t help the others sitting around the table.

“Will Jody be there?” Kaia’s voice tentatively crept up from behind.

There hadn’t been a monster attack for almost a year. But the final one hadn’t come without a cost. All eyes turned to the quiet, brown skinned girl standing a few steps below.

“...Yheah. Maybe she will,” Sam flashed an awkward smile. 

“So you got everything?” Patience broke the silence, commanding attention with a somehow-polite clap before weaving her fingers together. Moving on.

“Oh, yeah. If you guys could move the lamps, we’re going to put this altar cloth on the table,” Eileen foraged through her own bag, pulling out a large cloth with arcane geomantic figures etched across it. “Then we set up candles and… um.” She cautiously removed an ivory gripped M1911, putting it gently atop the folded cloth, “Something that belonged to them.” 

She lowered her eyes, and the rest of the room mirrored the moment of silence.

It broke as Claire unceremoniously slid a Sioux Falls police badge across the table. The eye contact said enough. 

She glanced over to Sam, “Got anything for Castiel?”

Sam looked surprised, “You want to talk to Cas?”

“Well, tch, no. But I figured you’d want to talk to him” 

She flicked her hair behind her ear to recover. 

“He had to have something you could use, he basically lived here, right?”

“I mean--Cas wasn’t really a ‘possessions’ kind of guy,” Sam grimaced, before his eyes scoured. 

The room saw the proverbial light bulb go off over his head. 

“I’ve got it. I’ve got to run to the garage but just finish setting up and I’ll be back in a minute.”

* * *

The table was set and preparations were made. Sam arrived, slapping down Dean’s Top 13 Zepp Traxx on the table in the pile, now arranged at the center of the library table near the candles.

“A cassette tape?” Kaia joined the folded-arms brigade. 

“Well, not really.”

Claire looked closer. “A mixtape?” She questioned more abrasively. “Did Dean give Castiel a mixtape?!”

“Uh--”

“Oh, that’s-” Claire put her gloved hands up in the air in surrender. “That’s just weird just--” her lips sealed firmly, shaking her head in peak nuh-uh. “Whatever, clowns, let’s just do this.”

Everyone settled in at the table. Patience took the head near the geoscope, one hand to Kaia and the other to Claire who nodded her support to her girlfriend. Jack stayed at the opposite end near the breezeway, one hand in each of his foster parents’ as they connected the circle.

Patience had taken the spare time of Sam’s scavenger hunt to memorize the verses as best she could manage.

 _“Amate spiritus obscure, Te quaerimus. Te oramus, nobiscum colloquere, apud nos circita,_ ” she chanted in repetition. Each time, she felt it, a wave of something--close yet far, faint yet profound. By the third, most demanding chant, the candles at the center of the table shot flames like rockets, leaving those less focused at the table pulling back--with the exception of Jack, who looked strangely entertained.

She opened her eyes and just stared.

“P-Patience?” Claire tried cautiously.

“Claire, is that you?”

“Patience, you okay?” Kaia tried this time.

“Kaia?”

“...Jody,” Sam breathed out. 

“Oh, you girls, I do miss you. And--Sam!” Not!Patience paused, assessing the look on his face. “I’m not the one you were looking for, huh.” 

The sass that rippled over the medium’s face was somehow unbecoming of her placid demeanor, as was the flint of her voice. 

“No! I mean yeah, but no, it’s good to see you Jody. The girls deserve to say something to you.”

“If you’re looking for your brother, Bobby just put out a call to him but Jack only knows what he’s doing,” Not!Patience swiveled her eyes to Jack on the opposite end of the table. “Pardon the joke.”

“Well--um,” Claire tried to hazard a shot. “I wish Alex had come for this, really--but--”

“How’s Alex doing?”

“Great. She’s almost through med school and… she had finals tomorrow.”

Sam grimaced, “I told her not to miss it, cuz I learned that lesson the hard way,” his strained smile flexed one too many times.

“Shhh shhh everyone quiet down.” Not!Patience muttered.

The bunker went quiet.

“Not you!”

“Oh uh. How’s… heaven, mom?”

“Weirdly busy? Weirdly not dead? I mean there’s good and bad to it but hey, not like you can’t make a long distance phone call now and then, right? Alex can reach me another time. And uh--woah--what--” Patience jerked with a minor convulsion, eyes snapping open a few times.

Sam drew tense, almost rising from his seat,

“SIT DOWN,” Not!Patience barked, voice full of base. “Oh calm down I’m just sayin’ hi.”

“Ummm,” Kaia bobbed her eyes between multiple faces at the table.

“There’s more than one,” a voice that actually sounded like Patience breathed out rapidly before she pitched her head. “Was wondering when you’d give another ring, boy.”

Sam squinted, “Bobby?”

“I know what you’re thinkin. But your brother’s doing fiiiiine. It’s you we’re more worried about. You hangin’ in there okay?” A pause. Patience’s eyes started spasming before Sam could even muster an answer, trying to look in too many directions at once “Hollllup!” A creole flare underscored. “Who you ridin’?--” Side-toss, “Back up, Rufus.”

Eileen looked pleadingly to Sam for an answer, who shook his head wide-eyed. It didn’t make any more sense if you could hear it. 

“ALRIGHT BOYS! BREAK IT UP! LET THE PSYCHIC BREATHE!” someone declared loudly, course but somehow smoother than the last few.

“...Ellen?” Sam took a shot in the dark.

“Hey, good guess, kid. We could make a game out of this.”

* * *

Dean trotted down from upstairs; a quicker transit than if he had tried to cross several universes at once, once Castiel relayed the message upstairs. Besides, this was his better Roadhouse self, most of the time. 

‘And I’m searchinnnn for a rainbow-’ 

“Oh come ON,” Dean announced himself loudly. “Why is it always this song?!” 

An overly dramatic conductor gesture whipped the jukebox into shape from afar, betraying his own anti-magic philosophy of before.

**Click. Click. Click:**

Dean realized the eyes of the entire Roadhouse were on him, and that otherwise they were all huddled around one table and a large, old CB radio, several hands on the cords. He didn’t know if they looked more busted, or just taken aback by his entrance.

_Ooh Ooh Ooh Ooh_

_Ooh Ooh Ooh_

_I found a lucky charm_

_I dressed it up with love_

_I crossed the Seven Seas to you_

_Will it be enough?_

So much for only songs before 1969; but apparently, Robert Plant always got a pass.

“So uh, what’s--?” 

_‘If uh-- what’s--? Dean?’_ The other end crackled.

Dean’s brow furrowed. “Sammy?”

_And I will be a rainbow_

_Oh, while your storm is gone_

_And I will bring the song for you_

_And I will carry on_

* * *

“Oh come ON!” Patience burst out, “Why is it always this song?!” 

Her head dropped, as if she passed out.

The table stared cautiously at her for several seconds.

“”So what’s--” Sam had tried to inquire what was even happening, but Patience matched him in sync. “...Dean?”

Not!Patience raised her head, looking on with suddenly deeply green eyes wrought with concern. 

_“Sammy?” A moment of disbelief hung in the air. “Is that you? Are you okay? Did something happen?”_

“Yeah, it’s-- no it’s fine, Dean. We just remembered doing this to reach Bobby before and everyone thought it would be nice to say hi.”

Those green eyes raked around the table, even if on the other end of the line, Dean was simply holding a radio. But somehow, he knew. 

_“Hey, guys. That’s… wow. There’s a lot of you.”_

Dean tried to pause, but before it could get much further, Sam and Patience both had to vice-grip Claire’s hands to prevent her from ripping them free to slam the table.

 _ **“DEAN WINCHESTER ARE YOU BANGING CASTIEL?!”**_ she demanded unceremoniously.

All eyes present nearly bugged out of heads. On both sides of the veil.

 _‘....Ohhhh boi,”_ Jody quickly decided to boogie out sideways.

She wasn’t aware that had escaped Patience’s mouth.

_I'm reachin' for the stars_

_In the sky above_

_Oh, I will bring their beauty home_

_The colors of my love_

“WHAT?” Dean defended. “NooOOo!” he denied, just as the angel trotted downstairs in his best trade off of rock shirt and jeans borrowed from the hunter that were too well fit for comfort, and hair more wild than the night they met.

“Oh, I gotta see how this goes,” Rufus had popcorn from literally nowhere as he pulled up a seat.

The waves of tugged lips of Dean Winchester trying to flash his most unbelievable believable grin did not compliment the young black woman any more than Rufus’ giddy excitement and quiet ‘hoo hoo’ in the background did.

That didn’t help with Claire. 

“DEAN!!”

Given, a few in the room didn’t understand why this would be a particular issue. 

“Claire, it’s just--”

“NO!” Claire and Dean!Patience barked out together.

Dean paused, glanced back at Castiel, and squeezed the receiver again. “Okay yes, but I mean, not until he was dead.”

“WHAT? _EW???_ GROSS!! SO HELP ME **I WILL BREAK THIS CIRCLE!!”**

Everyone at the table on both sides of the veil collectively let out a _**“nononono!”**_ , a complete chorus somehow sounding through Patience who briefly sloughed. 

We are legion, and we are nosy.

_And I will be a rainbow_

_Now your storm is gone_

_And I will bring my song to you_

_And I will carry on_

“No I mean--up here. It’s different. It’s-- and besides. Your dad has been at peace with your mom for a long time.” 

Dean tried to patch over and bring down the temperature--and everyone back to their seats. 

“It’s just me and Cas here.” Pause. “Well, and… like 30 people listening to us.” a pause.

Dean!Patience suddenly barked, “ **EVERYBODY OUT OF THE CLOWN CAR!** No. Jody, Cas, you stay.” another slump. Patience muttered under his breath, “There’s a lot of presences moving out. They’re… listening to music?” she tried to report from the numbness of her mind.

“You okay?”

“Yeah I think it’s about to get better.”

Dean clicked back on the receiver. “Sorry to whoever just got turned into the magic school bus for a minute there.”

Claire seemed to have settled during the concern for Patience, though seemed--in the very least--moody and broody. Kaia offered reconciliatory looks that would abate her for the rest of the night.

_Ooh Ooh Ooh_

_Ooh Ooh Ooh_

_Ooh Ooh Ooh_

_Ooh Ooh Ooh Ooh Ooh Ooh Ooh_

A much smaller group collected around the Roadhouse doors once the Occultum was briefly sealed at the saloon doors, closed for the night.

“Sam, is everything alright?”

He shouldn’t have known the difference, but he still cracked a grin. “Yeah, Cas. We’re fine. Just saying hi. Making sure you’re okay.”

“It’s heaven, why wouldn’t it be okay?”

“Do you remember ANYTHING about the last like, 12 years you were on earth or did you turn into brain goo in the Good Place, man?”

Dean tucked his chin in agreement on the other side. 

“He’s got you there, man,” Dean ceded the point to his brother. “But no, we’re fine. Great, actually.” 

Dean paused. 

“I saw Jack’s going to college.”

Jack finally perked at his chance to speak. “Did Sam tell you?”

Sam’s brows wrenched in confusion, “When would I have told him?” 

He looked just as questioning back at Patience, wondering.

“Nah, Cas and I sometimes look in. TV’s killer up here. You’re our favorite show,” Dean chuckled, sensing tension. “Don’t worry., we’re not writing it. Just making sure everyone’s doing good. We’re proud of you, kid.” 

_Love is enough_

_Though the world be a wind_

_And the woods have no voice but the voice of complaining_

_My hands shall not tremble, my feet shall not falter_

_The voyage shall not weary, the fish shall not alter_

Dean’s approval, even through Patience’s mouth, made Jack swell with visible pride. 

Suddenly, Dean’s tone sharpened. “But you keep joyriding in Baby like you’ve been, so help me if you put a scratch on her I will reincarnate just to kick your ass.”

While Jack looked busted under the eyes of Sam, and Eileen who did her best to catch the meat of it through lip reading since all hands were occupied--Castiel snared the receiver from Dean. “Hello Jack.”

“Cas--” the nephilim suddenly didn’t know what to say, staring softly at the woman ahead in place of his divine parent. 

“I wanted you to know I still think about you. Every day. And no matter what you do, we’re proud of you. Tell Sam not to worry, and that we’re okay. He can move on.”

_Hmm, It's rainbow, oh it's rainbow_

_Oh, can't you see the eyes are the eyes of a lover_

_Pocket full of hearts_

_A world that's filled with love_

_A love that carries all before_

_The passion and the flood_

Dean more politely gestured the receiver back. “You’ve been working hard and working smart. I see that and respect that. Just keep it up. But get the kid better clothes. Dressing Dean Junior up like a creepy My Buddy doll, giving me the creeps. Get married or whatever.”

Eileen shook her head. With it calmer and Patience not thrashing, she finally felt able to lock onto the paced conversation. 

“No, we’re not going to get married. There’s not a lot left to hunt, but I still have to move around a lot. I’ll be doing it till the job’s done.”

“Ey, good woman. Just don’t wander too far. That kid literally wouldn’t know how to tie his shoes if it wasn’t for me.” 

Dean grinned crookedly, ignoring Castiel and Jody getting up to wander towards the bar and make-busy straightening it as an excuse for giving Dean time with his brother and the others. 

“Yheah, okay.”

“No, I told you. I’ve been watching. Let go, Sam. It’s okay. Remember what I told you. Sacrifices can’t be for nothing. And you actually built that legacy we used to talk about. You and her both. So whether you’re married or hunters or men of letters or whatever--you gotta look at the now. Not looking back. Now is always better than before, okay? Nobody gets to walk back into the lives they left after this one.”

_I lie beneath the rainbow_

_Now your tears have gone_

_And I will sing my song for you_

_And I will carry on_

Sam paused, and nodded. “Yeah, I got it. Um-- so… see you later?”

Dean grinned. “Yeah. Hey. Cas, Jody, you got anything to add?”

Castiel didn’t feel particularly inclined to face Claire again and left it simple. 

“Tell Jack I love him.”

But Claire’s voice broke through quietly. “Can I talk to mom for a little bit?”

“Cas says ‘tell Jack I love him’,” Dean relayed, “But I’ll put you on with Jody. Sammy, you take your woman and go do something fun. The kids are alright.”

_Ooh Ooh Ooh Ooh_

_Ooh Ooh Ooh_

_Ooh Ooh Ooh_

_Ooh Ooh Ooh Ooh Ooh_

_Oh yeah, oh oh oh oh no no baby Ooh oh oh_

_Oh yeah, Ooh Ooh Ooh_

_Ooh Ooh Ooh_

_Ooh Ooh Ooh_

It was a cautious way to shift the circle without breaking it. Jack brought Sam and Eileen’s hands together, cautiously weaving and unweaving fingers without losing contact until they were handfasted.Sam stared over the table at her, reading her thoughtfully. “Live in the now, huh?” he mouthed, more than said. 

“Not a bad idea.”

Once released from Jack at the one end of the table, they stepped in-sync one perfect side step towards Claire and Kaia respectively, guiding their hands across the table to meet and repeating the cautious weaving and knitting of fingers until Claire and Kaia were handfasted, inheriting the circle. 

Sam and Eileen stared over their remaining held grip that was once Jack’s, glancing down at the tether over the table.

“I could totally throw you over the table right now.” Eileen chuckled.

“Yeah.” 

They let go, both dusting their hands off of sweat and magic while looking to the remaining triangle of Wayward girls. 

“Will they be okay?”

“We’re fine.” Claire assured.

“I’ll be fine too!” Jack assured. “I know I’m supposed to be living a normal life or whatever, but I think I’m going to just stay here tonight. For memories. And maybe finding a few books.” 

He nodded his self-ascertainment and saw himself out, if only to leave the Waywards their privacy. 

Sam and Eileen took quick measure, pacing their way down into the war room. Eileen looped her fingers in her belt hoops.

“So… Donna’s got Dean until tomorrow,” Sam rocked on his heels.

“Yep,” Eileen agreed, looking sideways.

“And this place is… really full of kids.” Sam chuckled. 

They weren’t literal children, but somehow, they were all like their own. 

“...Yup.” Eileen swayed, glancing back at the group corresponding with their mother figure, then the unlit war table map, then back sat Sam. “Can I tell you a secret if you promise not to get mad?”

“I thought we said no secrets.”

She pouted, bouncing on her heels dramatically. “Well I mean, you never asked.”

“Well, now I’m asking.” 

Sam couldn’t help but let his face be taken by a smile. Secret or not, the raised brow told him he probably couldn’t stay angry.

“So I may have been skimming a few alerts off of the system reports,” Eileen admitted, twisting in place. “So I have a few hunts I wanted to go do. Do you… want to come be my partner on a job?”

Sam raised his brows. It had been at least a few years since he was on a hunt. 

“Huh,” he considered, nodding through it. “Alright. What kind of hunt?”

“That’s just it. The case is really weird and even I can’t figure it out, so I didn’t want to just send _anybody_ at it. And I’ve been trying not to pull you into it but you know… maybe you and me, today?” she angled while tilting onto her ankle.

“...Yheah. Alright.” Sam nodded. “Alright. One hunt, for old times.” But somehow, it felt like moving forward, not looking back.


	2. House Rules

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For Sam and Eileen, they still have a life to figure out how to live.

Eileen had her own house rules. "Shotgun picks the music, driver doesn’t  _ care _ ,” Eileen had started their night out with a sassy bang on the way out of the bunker in her hot red mustang.

Perfect, nobody to judge him for blasting Celine Dion.

_ I'm looking back through the years _

_ Down this highway _

_ Memories they all lead up to this one day _

_ And many dreams lost along the way _

_ Haunt me still _

_ I guess they always will _

She tended to favor road safety more than Dean and honestly wasn’t much for conversation while driving for obvious reasons, leaving Sam muttering the case details he filed through on her iPad to himself. 

“Five missing… Seven cases of psychosis and eight unexplained… severe… extreme… or… unexplainable hemorrhages in rural Ohio town.. Bodies… half eaten.” 

He struggled through the phrasing, side swiping across a few graphic images that reminded him of unpleasant days in Sunnyvale, or whatever the cursed town of cardigans he had tried to bleach from his memory was called. 

“Oh wow,” he pulled back.

Celine made a strange backdrop to looking at excessive gore, but was somehow soothing.

Eileen caught it from the corner of her eye. 

“It’s bad, right?” she glanced long enough to catch him nodding, letting him educate himself while flicking through.

_ When love was too much to bear _

_ I just left it there _

_ Here I stand face to face _

_ With this heart of mine _

“No power outages, no weather patterns. Are we sure this isn’t just--” he flicked past her notes about assuming it was a psychic, only to delve deeper. His head yanked back. “Strange powder residue? Is it a-”

“Demon?” She may not be hearing him, but she recognized him going through the process in her peripheral much the same as she had. “Yeah, I thought so too but I figured Rowena would have tabs on that and when I called her, she said everyone was accounted for.”

_ Livin' without you I only fall behind _

_ We had a love most people never find _

_ All this time I never realized _

_ And the courage I finally found _

_ Has made me turn around _

Sam leaned forward to be seen, making swift gestures. “You called her?”

“Yeah. You taught me the hell spell.”

Sam rolled his eyes, exasperated. “You’re not supposed to just--” he threw up his free hand. Alright. Who was he to judge. “Okay.” 

He went back to the notepad while she went back to the road. 

“Yeah, thought so.” Eileen chuffed as she drove on, looking pleased with herself.

_ There is only one road I'm walkin' _

_ Only one lifetime, one heart to guide me _

_ Only one road I'm walkin' _

_ But I'm gonna run back, I'm gonna run back _

_ 'Cause I need you right here _

_ Beside me _

Sam tried to make himself interested in the case on hand in the file, but found himself warmly hypnotized by the road. There was a comforting familiarity of it, even if he didn’t see a roguish big brother grinning back at him when he glanced to the driver’s seat. Just someone who tasked herself to a similar life as them--and who was strong enough to not walk away. 

_ I can still hear the song of your laughter _

_ I can still taste the sorrow of your tears _

_ We said goodbye but our hearts did not hear _

_ Now my love there's nothing left to fear _

_ With all my heart put me through _

_ It leads me back to you _

Sure, they had a family; but the fire was still strong in her. It didn’t have to be ‘normal.’ Eileen wouldn’t do ‘normal’. Even if the world itself became totally normal she’d find a way to avoid that. The greatest fear was her walking out and not coming back one day. Just like happened in another life and another death they had been spared from once. And only once. Quite literally for God’s sake.

_ There is only one road I'm walkin' _

_ Only one lifetime, one heart to guide me _

_ Only one road I'm walkin' _

_ But I'm gonna run back, I'm gonna run back _

_ 'Cause I need you right here _

_ Beside me _

So many years of fighting to get out of the life and yet now, he realized he hadn’t been ready to entirely let it go either. Any more than he had been Dean. Or any better than he handled losing Eileen. He had left the life, but the loss of life never left him.

Celine would continue to sing on through the rest of their drive to Ohio while Sam tried to make himself be decently productive with work, even if his mind was on the tread of miles and the strange comfort of signs welcoming him to new states. They actually seemed new again.

* * *

“Good to see some kind of feds giving a damn,” A Guernsey Countysheriff greeted black-and-white suited Sam and Eileen with their flashed badge. “And trust me, we don’t say that often in these parts.” 

The officer had met them just outside of Cambridge, Ohio at Salt Fork State Park Office off of route 1 -- where most reported cases, and several bodies had led to, to no avail.

Sam looked off to the dense wooded lines around them, leading with obvious questions. “Yeah. I’ve seen the file but--I mean, you haven’t got a single lead, possible suspect, or…?”

“You sure you seen the file?” The officer looked at Sam deliberately. “At first we thought it might be something like a rabid bear. Fish and Wildlife went out a few days back and never came back. Haven’t heard a word from them. But I imagine that’s why you showed up.”

“Okay… so…” Sam kept the officer engaged while Eileen wandered off to inspect the density of the forest line and how navigable it might be. “This is probably going to sound weird,” Sam shuffled his questions between his splayed fingers as if to click them into shape. 

“I’d call this all pretty weird.”

Eileen successfully swept away some evergreens but quickly found herself at a water line. Heading back through the dense shrubbery, she hopped out and caught back up to Sam, reading his lips cautiously in return to see where they were at.

“The images we saw… those didn’t… look like normal hemorrhages. But was that weather damage? Are we talking… weather and raccoons or…” Sam gripped his fists, trying to squeeze out a phrase and only one thing scorched into his mind jumped out, “Popped… like a ripe melon on the sun.”

“...A ripe melon on the sun?” the sheriff and Eileen both spoke in disbelieving fragments of each other’s echo, making an inconsistent chorus.

Sam grimaced. “Sorry. Old… partner--” he waved it off.

Once the cop recovered, “Uh, more the latter, I guess.” He cleared his throat. “You got the markers where they found ‘em and where others were last seen?”

“Yeah.” Sam nodded. “Thanks… for the help. I think we got it from here.”

The cop looked Sam and Eileen up and down. “Hope you brought better shoes, kid.” With a tip of the hat, he wandered out.

Sam looked back to Eileen, who had brows raised in enduring questions that left Sam stammering. “Sorry, it was a-- uh-- a thing-- Cas said. A psychic--nevermind.” His adams’ apple bobbled as he cleared his own throat, shaking it off. “Anything?”

She shook her head. “No. But he’s right. We should change… cuz I think we’re about to go camping.”

* * *

Bodies had been found in alarming, but incongruent patterns. One floated in a shallow, unnamed but long inlet creek from the western face of sugartree fork around the park. Most had been thrown haphazardly into the roads. Routes 1, 3 and 6 had all had unfortunate impromptu speed bumps along the way. 

Circling it out on the map, once changed into proper hunting flannel and denim at the Salt Fork Campgrounds where a few victims had last been known to be, Sam and Eileen had ventured cautiously almost half a mile into the woods. Half a mile beyond where they set up camp was visitor central--fanciful cabins, a lounge, conference center, a marina--even a golf course. 

"There really isn't much to go on here, is there?" Sam asked himself more than Eileen, who was busy unpacking. "Witnesses heard screaming in the woods. That's helpful." 

Sam rubbed his hand over his face, glancing up to Eileen putting up various warding on the surrounding trees. Once she turned enough to face him, he signed,  _ Do you even know what you're warding against? _

"No," She admitted. "But might as well try all of it."

He tucked his chin and nodded a silent  _ Fair _ back at her.

They settled in for the night as peacefully as they could with a large stock of blades and firearms for company over the romantic campfire and threat of pending death. Sam opted to keep his ears sharp, even if Eileen was more than aware of her surroundings. 

They took to trading signs over the fire.

Sam flirted across first. _ Been a while since we had a real date. _

_ Long enough for you to get pretty good at signing. _ She fired back.

_ Ouch. _ Sam patted his chest, looking wounded.

They both silently chuckled.

_ Sam, I was thinking, _ Eileen paused in her signing to display just that. He waited patiently for her to finish.  _ I don’t want to miss Dean growing up. _

Sam looked up, eyes warmer than the fire in his surprise. And, as the fire popped, a spark of hope.

_ I can’t stop what I’m doing. But I don’t want to hide hunts from you either. I was thinking? Maybe we could work on hunts together more after this? When Donna’s willing? _

Sam furrowed his brows.  _ You’re good at hunting alone.  _ Something hit him.  _ Wait, was it in Ohio? _

Her non-response was enough of an answer. Some things had been foggy to him since coming back. Specific, small details had drifted away in place of the larger picture. Eileen never came back from a hunt in Ohio, in a gory casefile he couldn’t bring himself to do more than look at. 

Sam had considered himself alert before, but his muscles coiled as if ready to spring. The slightest distant pitch had him on his feet in a moment, checking his pistol.

“Sam?” she whispered, sounding worried while matching his upright position with machete in hand.

“Do you hear that?” Stupid question, Sam.

Eileen looked around for any sign of a threat.

The pitch grew. Once again he was reminded of the psychic; but it was different. A banshee, maybe? It was miserable, whatever it was.

His vision blurred as he went to his knees, barely hearing Eileen shout his name while he covered his ears as if it could ward it away.

The only way he could determine the source was by the pressure. He could feel Eileen more than hear or see her at that point, circling around him closely enough to bump him, senses overloaded. He forced his hands away from his ears to check, detecting excess pain from his right side and turning. He saw blood on his hands and felt it running from his face, but focused to throw an accusatory point towards a blurred distortion in the forest line.  _ There. Behind you. _

He felt his consciousness slipping, his heart racing, and his head splitting-possibly literally, if the files had told him anything.

And then it suddenly stopped.

The release was enough that he almost blacked out on the spot, but impact with the ground knocked air both out and into him enough to squint through a hazy, tilting world to a lighter squealing and crackling sound. Eileen had driven a blade into some creature of roots, vines, and bark. It staggered back in pain, but took the blade and huntress with it.

She was forced to let go to dodge its trunk-armed swing while it circled the camp. The warding seemed to do nothing to stop it, but it rounded them like a predator. Or--

Before Sam could form a complete thought or push himself up on sheer tenacity, another wave of sound hit him again, choking the breath out of him. Gunshots somehow sounded soft and quaint until the rest of the din died down in his head. 

“FIRE,” he yelled. ...And then realized she couldn’t hear him. 

Though he felt like gravity came from the wrong directions at a hundred G’s, he staggered upright--emphasis on staggered--towards the campfire.

“Sam?” she caught movement, calling out as he stuck his bare arm into the flame to grab the nearest log like a club. Another wave hit him, this time rendering him unconscious.

The world went black.

* * *

A cleared out heavenly roadhouse only had two guests sharing the radio tonight, though Castiel was more listening than he was sharing.

“Hey heyyyy, Sammyyyy, you can’t keep calling like this, Cas’ll get jealous,” Dean stimmed with the transmitter in his hands a few times while the heavenly being next to him completely ignored, sitting cross-kneed and reading the Celestial Times for anything that had missed his focus.

A long pause.

“Sammy? You okay? Taking you a minute.”

Dean’s brow furrowed, and even Castiel looked up at that point. “Should I turn on the TV?”

“Yeah um,” Sam’s voice finally came over transmission. “So--Eileen can lipread, and I can’t? So?”

“...What do you mean Eileen can lipread?”

After another round of pause, “Um, so, you know how dad’s journal said he killed the last Mandragora?”

“....Yeahhh?”

“Yeah. He was as right about that as the vampires.”

Dean paused, tucking in his chin. Huh. “You alright?”

“Well, I mean, I can’t hear for crap anymore. And Jack’s not supposed to use his powers. Besides, Eileen gets on just fine without it.”

Dean pressed his lips into the receiver, thoughtfully glancing aside at Cas. “Exceptions set precedents; but some precedents may be worthwhile.”

“Whatever happened to being a whole and perfect soul?” Dean pitched back.

Castiel tilted his head, looking back to the paper, “I’m just saying two deaf hunters working the wrong case will never see a threat coming.” Or one alone. “If it was his eyes, I wouldn’t say anything.”

“Oh yeah, a perfect yin-yang.” Dean snarked, pressing the button to transmit, “Okay, well, His and Hers Deafsies. That’s cute. We leave it up to you to figure it out or whatever. We won’t get pissed if you get Jack to fix your ears, or whatever. But Eileen does pretty good her way. Just… it’d be a big change for you. Eileen’s had it her whole life.”

“Sure, yeah, we’ll think about it.” Sam didn’t sound super interested at the moment.

“So how’d it go?”

Eileen took her chance to speak up. “Sam rolled around a lot and I kicked its ass.”

“Oh.” Dean’s nod could be heard past the veil. “Yeah I guess you could just kinda Xena Warrior Princess past the screaming.”

“To be fair, it probably would have killed me before I saw it without him. And he knew to use fire.”

“Now that’s teamwork! Match made in Cheap Motels. A tale for the ages. You save any of the spell components?”

“Ummmm…” Eileen didn’t sound proud.

“Um?”

There was a delay as Eileen belatedly signed the question.

“Yeah uh,” Sam took his turn, “We kind of accidentally burned down the whole park.”

“Oh.” Dean repeated. Somehow, he still sounded impressed or, at least, intrigued. “Well that’ll do it.”

“If there were any ghosts in the graveyard on the other side, we got them good!” Eileen pitched in, leaving Dean quietly chuckling into the receiver.

“Well alright, you crazy kids. Be safe. Try not to burn anything else down while we’re gone. I hear we’ve got a big guest inbound so Cas and I have to get running.”

“Okay. See you later,” Sam offered.

“See you later, Sammy.” 

And with that, Dean hung up. 

* * *

On the other end, Sam and Eileen looked at each other thoughtfully. Sam hadn’t exactly told about his first degree burns on a bandaged arm any more than Eileen had her panic of getting Sam to the hospital or the few days it took to report in. 

_What do you think?_ Eileen gestured to Sam, inquisitive.

“I think… I think we can take time to figure it out,” Sam admitted. “Besides, if you made it work your whole life, I can probably make it work out a little while if I’ve got you to show me the ropes. Besides. I can still hear a _ little _ bit. When it’s not ringing,” he chuckled.

“Okay,” Eileen nodded, reaching out as if to offer him a hand up. Still dizzied and off balance, he took it willingly with a grunt neither of them made out.

Sam stopped, staring down at her. Lifting her chin, he leaned in making  _ sure _ she couldn’t miss his lips. 

“No more secrets,” he stole a quick kiss.

“No more secrets.”

Sam added on with a sign  _ But we’re agreed we’re only texting Jack until his semester is over, right? _

Eileen just returned a thumbs up.

Secrets were for parents. From their kids. Not each other.

Right?

* * *

It was an adventure to explain it to Donna all over again, and certainly an adjustment over the next few weeks--which mostly came down to Sam going to forums of hard of hearing parents looking for tips, especially with a toddler. In the interim, daycare was admittedly necessary, but Eileen had plenty of advice--even if the childrearing had been more Sam’s task to date than hers. 

Dean was happy to have his mother home so much and frankly, Eileen hadn’t realized how easy it was to take a few ongoing weeks--months even--with simple cube gabes and language learning. Making sure Junior knew more than a few basic gestures was all but mandatory, but easily became a fun game that ensured constant gestures and flexes throughout the day. Soon enough, babble became jazz hands.

Eileen had always been good at administrative ops, even if the actual coding was more of a Sam feat. She didn’t mind sending along files from afar to help the Waywards and others still trafficking the bunker. 

Eileen looked away from the computer to the a living room where mooseyback rode their toddler high, soaring like an eagle with open wings only to dramatically fall onto the couch and bounce, rolling to his feet and doing his best falcon impersonation scooting through the house with a father in shuffle-footed pursuit through the halls.

It wouldn’t hurt to take a year or two off. Sam had. There would be plenty of time to stab things once the kid was in school eight hours a day, wasn’t there?

There was too much to miss right here. Right now. 

Eileen shut the laptop and rose to join the chase.

* * *

_ So you're tired and beat _

_ And you've worked all week _

_ And you need a place you can let it go. _

_ Where the girls go wild _

_ And the boys play hard _

_ And you need a little more than just the radio. _

Dean had reopened the Roadhouse in preparation. It wasn’t the busiest crowd the face had seen, but more than several had been waiting a while to chat with their esteemed guest. 

Bobby, Mary, John, and Adam--yes, Adam, who had found his way to the refounded heaven, but that’s a story for another time--waited with refreshments with loudly reverberating song feeling almost more the part of the club than country roadhouse.

_ Well here's your open invitation _

_ With just a couple regulations. _

_ Let me warn you son, only come to have fun _

_ We don't take kindly to serious. _

A thud sounded outside. 

“Guess that’s him,” Dean considered, nodding Castiel to the newly minted double-doors to press open in tandem. 

A weavilly, bearded author was pushing himself up in disarray from the lower steps, jolting as he looked up to Dean and Castiel.

Chuck choked as he watched Dean cuff up his sleeves.

“Hey buuuuuddy,” the hunter crooned, silently threatening to drop down the first step.

_ So leave your troubles at the door _

_ Unless you want some in here. _

_ Welcome to my house, buckle up tight _

“Dean! Hah hah. Fancy seeing you here.” A pause, and a glimpse behind his shoulder. “And… Castiel… still… existing, I see.”

Castiel simply nodded, doing nothing to slow the hunter’s methodical but somehow ploddingly drawn out descent down the steps to the former Ex Machina.

_ Everybody sings and drinks, laughs and gets high. _

_ It's a country music, a little soul, _

_ It's a rock 'n roll rodeo. _

_ We don't tolerate no sitting around _

“I hear hell didn’t want you, so we decided to do them a favor,” Castiel finally spoke from above.

“Oh, heh, yeahhh. You know, they can’t just… damn the creator of the universe to Perdition! Tch! I mean--yeah? Right?” Chuck half-gasped through his panicked stammer, watching several other bodies wander out of the roadhouse onto the shallow porch.

_ Everybody's dancin', groovin' and getting on down. _

_ So before you come in here with some kind of attitude _

_ You better read the house rules. _

Mary Winchester cracked her knuckles, having what appeared to be a very distinct recollection of Enochian brass knuckles. John Winchester, a certain fabled gun he would love to test out a heaven replica’s efficacy against a former god. Bobby, spit and vinegar in a shotgun; and Adam, one slowly raised middle finger.

_ Around eleven o'clock when the front door locks _

_ And the boys start raising the bottle. _

_ Where the girls do the thing with the Mardis Gras beads _

_ Yeah, You know they're gonna show 'em if they got 'em. _

“What do you say Mom goes first?”

“Seems fair,” Bobby said, despite cocking his shotgun. "These aren't titbeads either, son."

“Wait wait wait!” Chuck threw up his hands in surrender, already cowering. “Look, you said it yourself. That’s not who you are, Dean!” he tried to implore.

“I said I won’t kill you, dickbag. You’re already dead!”

Castiel helpfully, if flatly, injected from the sidelines. “I think what Dean’s trying to convey is the special recreation of a new form of hell in the celestial spheres.”

Was that cynical humor, scathing truth, or both?

_ No matter what your story, a good time is mandatory. _

_ Well rule number seven says don't touch the women _

_ But they can grab whatever they want to. _

_ Welcome to my house, buckle up tight _

“Okay wait--no, no. See, you’re better than that, Dean!” Chuck implored his own fate. 

“...You wrote a story where I burned on the ceiling,” Mary approached threateningly, making Chuck backstep one pace.

“Everything you put my family through,” John had never left his perch on the step to raise the Colt.

“You caused apocalypse,” Bobby almost sounded incredulous that he even had to explain as he flanked opposite Mary.

Adam shouted out, “You’re a dick!” perhaps the most eloquent, rather than jousting terrible father figures against each other.

Castiel nodded side-to-side, “He’s right, you are a dick.”

“But yeah,” Dean sharply reached a hand out. “We are better than that. You get one last chance, Chuck.”

_ No such thing as last call. _

_ We pick' em up when they fall . _

_ We share the same bathroom stall, _

_ Says the sign on the wall. _

Chuck sighed in relief. Until he realized he was emitting light. 

“Wait. Wait what are you doing.” He looked between all of them in panic, “How is he doing that? What is he doing?”

_ No such thing as last call. _

_ We pick' em up when they fall . _

_ We share the same bathroom stall, _

_ Says the sign on the wall. _

“See, Cas showed me why you shoved your sister out. Or whatever you two are. You didn’t want to share a throne. Now I don’t want to know what kind of creepy shit you two got up to on your down time before she had other options, but you see Chuck?” he could see it in the fallen god’s eyes he already understood. “I run this joint now.”

_ No such thing as last call. _

_ We pick' em up when they fall . _

_ We share the same bathroom stall, _

_ Says the sign on the wall. _

“So go on. Live a life. Make babies,” Castiel nearly sneered the end of it. “And when you die, and your soul comes to heaven? Tell us your story.”

The ego, the self-crafted vision of Chuck seemed to evaporate into the air from around Dean’s hold to his head. Slowly, Dean pulled out a glowing sphere. It seemed fragile in the scheme of things, even if it was one of the most indestructible things on the planet. 

“Did… you just roast him?” Bobby lowered his gun in disbelief.

_ Welcome to my house, buckle up tight _

_ Everybody sings and drinks, laughs and gets high. _

_ It's a country music, a little soul, _

_ It's a rock n roll rodeo. _

“Nah. Well. Yeah, kinda. Jack already took over his mental territory with earth. Most of his memories weren’t his anymore and I somehow don’t figure he did much better in life. Only a few things left in here that are really his. Cas?”

The angel arrived with a literal mason jar, canning the soul.

“Goes out first call for a soul. Let him grow up once top to bottom in what he made. Sam and Jack have already made it better so he doesn’t get excuses. But let’s make sure he doesn’t wander in here trying to make war with the place.”

“Did you just… reincarnate God?” Mary squeaked as Castiel walked off with the goods.

“Eh, sure, I guess.”

_ We don't tolerate no sitting around _

_ Everybody's dancin', groovin' and getting on down. _

“Whatever. Let’s drink.” Dean  gestured to thegestured the crowd back to the bar, “I think we’re all tired of the vengeance shtick.”

“You wouldn’t call that vengeance?” Cas challenged from the door.

_ We don't tolerate no sitting around _

_ Everybody's dancin', groovin' and getting on down. _

_ So before you come in here with some kind of attitude _

“No, that’s spite. And you know the secret to living a long and happy afterlife? Spite.”

“...I don’t think that’s how that saying goes.”

Dean chuckled, clapped the angel on the shoulder and headed inside. “Alright buddy. Hit me up upstairs when you’re done playing with the bees.”

_ Boy, before you come a walkin' in here with any kind of attitude _

_ You better read the house rules. _

_ You better read the house rules. _


End file.
